Wright Mills imparts a bold statement in his opening sentence, when he writes, "The power of ordinary men are circumscribed by the everyday worlds in which they live, yet even in the rounds of job, family, and neighborhood they often seem driven by forces they can neither understand nor govern" (Mills 1956). It appears that Mills may have done his homework. Ordinary men have enhanced the "power elite". Anyone who has lived in the United States, or the planet earth for one day, holds this is common knowledge. .
I would like to take this opportunity to focus on the author, C. Wright Mills, for a few moments. To better understand what an author is attempting to convey, we must know where he is coming from. Several questions should surface when we approach the material. Who is this person? Does he have a personal agenda (axe to grind)? What are his ideologies on political, economics, or social systems. Mills talks about the bourgeoisie, the feudal epoch, monopolies, and the laissez-faire. These words are familiar when we research historical events and read of those who try to over throw our free government. .
C. Wright Mills also belongs to an "elite", inner circle of colleagues, such as Marx, Engels, Lenin, Gerth, and Weber. Let's examine a definition and with out disclosing the actual word, we will ascertain what the word is. "A system in which production and goods are commonly owned. .gained through revolution. Socialism as practiced in countries governed by. "(Webster's II 1995). .
Mills refers to the "big three", and indicates that the typical institutional; units have become enlarged, administrative, and in the power of its decisions, has become centralized (Mills 1956). These "big three", using Mills depiction, are as follows: .
The economy-once a great scatter of small productive units in autonomous balance-has become dominated by two or three hundred giant corporations, administratively and politically interrelated, which together hold the keys to economic decisions (Mills 1956).
